Israeli who killed seven Palestinians at bus stop in major traffic accident 16 years later

(Bethlehem) Najib Farag
18 January 2007

Many Palestinians were not sorry to see Ami Popper be injured and suffer the death of his wife and child in a traffic accident Thursday morning. On 20 May 1990 he used his own gun to shot and kill seven Palestinians and injure several other at a bus stop.

They were all day laborers from the Gaza Strip, working inside Israeli boundaries. Israeli police sources say he was sentenced to seven times life, but was allowed to leave the prison.

He was driving his car while on furlough without having renewed his license since entering prison 16 years before. His wife and son were in the car and were killed.

Ayman Ghaneim works in shop inside the Israeli section of Jerusalem and knows what it is to suffer from the actions of the occupiers. He said, “What happened to Ami Popper this morning, considering the number of citizens, particularly workers who suffer every day from the actions of the Israeli occupation and the threats of extremists, this seems like a kind of retaliation.

Young Mahmoud, who did not want his family name revealed, told PNN, “I feel glad this happened to the butcher who killed workers in cold blood who were trying only to feed themselves and their families. They should not have to risk death at the hands of an assassin who killed them only because they were Palestinian.”

Palestinian workers interviewed said they were pleased at the media attention the incident is getting, and that they are glad no one has forgotten what this man did. For that comments includes the ideas that he was a butcher and that a curse fell on him “from the skies.”